Lily's Story: A Micro-Preemie's First Year

I had a doctor appointment in Marshfield on April 6th, so we stopped in for a visit into the NICU. When Lily left the NICU she was 7 lbs, 7.7 oz. The most common reaction from the nurses was, "Oh, my!" One nurse commented that Lily was obviously never fed at home. They were surprised at the difference. They took an updated picture for the graduates wall. It's a strange thought, but Lily will be having a birthday in a couple months. Once we got her home the time went by fast.

I'm having trouble with the password on the gallery, but will get it resolved soon so that we can post updated pictures.

(April 14, 2007): It's been a little while since I updated. Lily went to the doctor on April 13th for her last RSV shot. She cried a lot. She's gotten older and more aware. She puffs out her lower lip when she's upset. We held her and read to her the books which were in the exam room. Lily is now 18 lbs 11 oz. We got a chart which shows how much Baby Tylenol we can give her. We think Lily is teething and is really miserable at times.

Lily is completely off her reflux medicine. She only gets vitamins now. For a while she was eating rice cereal mixed with breast milk by spoon. Now she spits it out and cries, so we're back to her bottle. This teething thing is really difficult for her. She drools and chews on anything she can get her mouth on. Fingers, toys, Jed, me. This was a really bad time to try and see if Lily could learn to breast feed. Alas, Mommy is not a warm chewy, so that won't be attempted again.

Lily rolls over a lot, still from her back onto her belly. I've removed the larger wedge in her crib, so her incline is not so drastic. We are so relieved she has outgrown the reflux. She still spits up some, but her doctor said the medicine dosage was so small compared to her weight that it probably hasn't been doing anything for a while. Her spit ups now may be part of the teething.

I'm looking forward to going for walks once the weather stays warm. It snowed a few more inches this last week. Mid April, and it's snowing. Argh!!!

(April 19, 2007): The weather improved enough that Lily and I could go out for "a stroll." I pushed the stroller for some blocks, trying to keep Lily facing away from the sun. She is like Mommy in that she does not like sun light. It's funny, because she is facinated by lights and light bulbs. During our stroll Lily said her first smooth two syllable word, "Hello." Previously, it had been Hell-Low. Now it became "Hello." Her language skills are on the rise again. She's a chatter box.